


The Road To You

by regardinglove



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Misunderstandings, Requited Love, Romance, Tropes, literally all the cheesy tropes okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-15 23:23:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7243027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regardinglove/pseuds/regardinglove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or, the four times Dean asks Cas to marry him, and the one time he says yes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Road To You

**At Nine Years Old**

 

The first time Dean asks Cas to marry him, it’s a Thursday.

They’re sitting on a playground swing set after school, kicking their feet to see who can go the highest. Cas thinks this contest clearly unfair, because Dean’s not weighed down by an ugly trench coat that Mother makes him wear, even though it’s the middle of August and it’s a balmy eighty-five degrees outside. He’s practically sweating through it, and the exertion from kicking his legs doesn’t make it any easier.

“Can’t catch me, Cas!” Dean squeals from next to him as he arcs upward again, this time almost clearing the top of the swing set. “I’m gonna go allllllll the way over!”

“You can’t!” Cas yells back as he fruitlessly tries to pump his legs harder than before. “It’s impossible!”

“Nuh-uh!” Dean objects with a pout. “Benny says that his brother does it all the time!”

Cas grips the chains of the swing tighter when Dean flies upward, this time cresting above the swing set’s top and arching backwards. When he comes back down, the chains rattle and Dean flies by, mouth turned upward as he kicks his legs again to gain momentum.

“You’re gonna hurt yourself,” Cas calls out, toeing the ground to stop his movement. “Just give it up, Dean.”

“Nope!” Dean cries out when he passes by again.

“I bet you can’t even do it,” Cas mutters under his breath, which Dean catches as he flies by. After arcing up and almost making it over, Dean digs his heels into the grass to stop his ascent. Cas looks over at his friend and finds his lips upturned into a crafty smile, which can only mean one thing.

“You wanna bet?” Dean says as he gets up from the swing and walks in front of Cas.

Cas scoffs at Dean and crosses his arms. No, he doesn’t want to bet, because Dean probably will make it all the way around and Cas’ll be stuck doing his homework for a week, or he’ll have to ask Lisa Braeden if she likes Dean, or something else equally as annoying.

And yet, he can’t pass up an opportunity to prove Dean wrong.

“Fine,” Cas says, lips in a pout. “If you can’t get over in three tries, then you lose and owe me your snack packs for the rest of the week.”

Dean saunters backwards and grins widely, arms thrown out in an open gesture. “Fine, Cas. But if I win, then…,” he pauses for a moment, but then his eyes fly open and he begins jumping up and down. “Oh! Oh! If I win, then you’ve gotta marry me!”

Cas nearly falls off the swing at that request. Dean wants to marry him? Why? He’s the church kid from next door who wears a dorky trench coat and barely is let out of the house besides Bible camp and church services. Dean’s only his friend in the first place because his mom made him come over for a play date five years ago. Why would he want to marry Cas when they’re older?

“Why?” Cas asks with a confused pout.

Dean stops jumping and looks on with furrowed brows. “Why what?”

“Why do you want to marry me?” he asks, because it’s really beyond him at this point.

Dean breaks out into giggles and tramps over to the swing. “Because you’re my best friend, Cas, and mom always says that you should marry your best friend.”

 _Oh,_ Cas thinks. _That makes a lot of sense._ He purses his lips and turns towards Dean. “Okay,” he agrees, fingers clutching the metal chains out of fear and excitement. “Deal.”

“Deal it is,” Dean responds, and then immediately begins kicking his legs again. Cas goes quiet as he watches Dean push from the ground with his feet, gaining agility with every pump. Soon enough, Cas is watching as his friend flies high above the swingset’s top, and with a loud shout Dean arcs over it completely, holding on for dear life as he comes down bumpily.

“Told ya!” Dean exclaims once he’s grounded again, eyes alight and bright.

“Congratulations,” Cas deadpans, but then he remembers the deal they made and his heart beats a little faster. “Wait...that means we’re getting married, right?”

Dean beams from the swing and nods enthusiastically. “Uh huh. But not until we’re older because it’s like, illegal and stuff now,” he says with a shrug. “But don’t worry, Cas. I’m gonna be a _great_ husband. I’ll cook you burgers and everything.”

Cas smiles timidly at that and nudges the grass with his toe. “With extra onions on top?”

Dean’s eyes go wide. “But you hate onions!”

Cas blushes a bit before getting up from the swing. “Well, if you like onions, I like onions. That’s what husbands do, right?”

“Well, I guess,” he replies with a grin on his face. “And if you’re gonna eat onions for me I’ll…,” he trails off, eyes searching for the object he desires. When he finds it, Dean runs forward and plucks the dandelion from the ground and thrusts it at Cas. “I’ll give you all the dandelions, because I know you love them.”

Cas can’t believe it. Dean told him that dandelions are for babies, and yet he’s giving Cas one because he loves them? “Wow, thanks!” Cas exclaims, and reaches forward. He accepts the gift, holding it between two fingers as his eyes go wide.

“You’re very welcome,” Dean says while rocking back and forth on the heels of his feet.

“Deanl!” Mary calls from the bench by the sidewalk, breaking up their conversation. “It’s time to go now!”

“Can we stay five more minutes?” Dean whines loudly, but Mary just shakes her head and begins saying goodbye to Naomi.

“I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” Cas says, but Dean’s got a disappointed expression on his face and he’s kicking up dust from a rough patch in the grass.

“There’s a lot to still talk about though!” Dean exclaims. “Whose house will we live at? Can we get a dog when we’re married? I really want a Great Dane. And who’s gonna work and who’s gonna stay home with the dog? Are we-”

“Dean!” Cas gets out through laughter when his friend begins counting all the thing they need to decide on his fingers. “We’re only nine. We’ve got _years_ to figure it out.”

Dean’s lips push up into a grin and he leans back on the heels of his feet. “Yeah, we’ve got time, don’t we?”

“Dean Winchester, if you don’t get over here this instant you’re father’s going to hear about this!” Mary exclaims from the bench, and that gets Dean running.

“I’ll see you in class, Cas!” he calls. “Don’t forget our deal!”

Cas looks up at the sky and grins brightly. “Don’t worry, Dean. I won’t.”

 

**At Fourteen Years Old**

 

The second time Dean asks Cas to marry him, it’s on a camping trip.

The entire freshman class of Edlund High is huddled around a barely there fire, desperately trying to keep warm. It’s a frigid November night, and Cas is wondering why anyone thought going on a class bonding trip when it’s closer to Thanksgiving than Labor Day was a good idea. They already had an early snow day a few weeks back, but no, no one even considered cancelling this trip and putting it off until the end of the year. Now they’re all quiet as they watch Benny try to restart the flickering flames, but no dice.

“This is gross,” Becky calls out, cuddled closely with Chuck for warmth. “I wanna go back to Lawrence!”

“Do you think any of us want to be here right now, Rosen?” Ms. Mills calls out from one of the tents, trying her best to clamp down an edge of the plastic tarp. “It’s damn cold and I’m freezing too. We all are. We just gotta power through. Ms. Hanscum will be back soon with the blankets!” she reminds them when Becky glares from afar, and Cas just watches as Ms. Mills rolls her eyes and goes back to knocking pegs into the ground.

“Cas, can you feel your hands? Because I can’t feel mine,” Dean comments as he walks up to the campsite with Cassie Robinson by his side. She’s curled up in his arms and her head fits perfectly below Dean’s chin, ebony curls cascading around Dean’s face. Looking at them is nauseating; they’re freakishly adorable, and Cas can’t help but scoff when they take a seat on the log next to him and begin holding hands because really, is that necessary?

 _You’re not jealous_ , Cas tells himself for the thousandth time since Dean and Cassie got together. _You’re can’t be_. And yet, when Dean whispers in Cassie’s ear and she giggles loud enough for the entire campsite to look at them, he catches himself digging his fingers into his palms and glancing away.

It’s ridiculous, all of it. Dean was never Cas’s. Not really, and he gets it. He really does. That playground promise they made five years back meant nothing. They were nine and young and couldn’t even fathom that there were other people in the world outside of their little circle. Of course Dean would want to date when they got into high school, and Cassie’s an attractive girl. Why shouldn’t Dean have a cute girl like Cassie Robinson to keep him warm during dumb school functions?

It doesn’t mean that he has to like it though, so Cas gets up from his log and wanders out into the dense forest, eyes up on the clear, starry night sky as he traverses far enough out to not hear Becky’s complaining or Cassie’s noisy laughs. It’s peaceful, and the sky really is lovely above him. The stars are fantastic out here, all bright and brilliant and beautiful. It’s entrancing enough that Cas ignores the tough, cold ground and lays down on it, eyes chasing clouds as they float by and tries to find a pattern in the cluster of lights above his head.

He doesn’t realize that it’s been ages since he’s been gone until Dean’s voice calls through the bushes.

“Cas! Castiel!” he yells, and Cas turns over the minute Dean’s loud footsteps tramble through the trees. His eyes are alight and he looks afraid, but Cas can’t imagine why.

“What are you doing?” Cas asks confusedly.

Dean tosses his arms up in the air and brings them back down dramatically. “Looking for you, asshat! Who just wanders off like that for an hour without tellin’ anyone?”

Cas gets up from the ground and looks around. He is really cold, he notices, and did it drop below freezing while he was gone?

“I didn’t realize I was gone so long. Apologies.”

Dean sighs and walks forward, throwing his arm around Cas’s waist and drawing him in close. “I’m glad you’re fine, but don’t scare me like that again, man. I thought you got eaten by a coyote or I don’t know, a goat.”

Cas snorts inelegantly as they begin trekking back towards camp. “A goat? There’s no goats in the woods, Dean. And even if there were, they couldn’t eat me.”

“You don’t know that. Sammy and I went to a petting zoo once and the goats there were ruthless. Took all of our feed and bit Sam’s finger. Had to get a bunch of stitches and everything. They could eat you if they wanted.”

Cas is shivering from the freezing temperatures now and doesn’t have the energy to argue, so they move along for a while without saying anything. With Dean next to him, he can feel warmth radiating from his friend, and he wonders what would happen if he just walked a little bit closer, put his arm around Dean’s waist like his was around Cas’s right then.

But he doesn’t get to even consider it before they reenter the campsite and Cassie jumps up from the log, barreling towards them and knocking Cas out of the way.

“You’re okay! Thank goodness!” she says, taking Dean in her arms. “You were gone for so long!”

“It’s okay, Cassie,” Dean mutters into her hair. “Cas just got a little distracted, is all.”

Cassie breaks away from Dean and turns to him, lips pulled up into a grin. “I’m glad you’re fine too, Cas.”

“Thank you,” Cas responds, and tries not to cringe when Dean takes Cassie’s hand and leads her over to the campfire. The others are already sitting around with sticks in hand, gooey marshmallows dripping languidly into the fire. Cas looks on as Dean picks up a stick from the ground and shoves a marshmallow on it, thrusting it into the flickering flames without any class or grace to it. It’s so typically Dean, and Cas just sighs when he walks over and takes the twig from Dean’s hand.

“Hey!” he calls out when Cas extracts it from the fire and blows on the treat, now a carbonized black mess. “I was workin’ on that.”

“You were doing it all wrong,” Cas counters as he tosses the stick and marshmallow to the side of the campsite. “There’s a reason I make all of your s’mores, Dean.”

“Fine. You wanna be a hotshot? Then you make one and show me how it’s done.”

Cas nods in understanding and reaches into the bag by the fire, pulling out a plump, perfectly white marshmallow. He takes one of the longer twigs in the pile and carefully puts the treat on it, and then eases it into the fire. Unlike Dean, Cas pulls it out after a few seconds, and lo and behold, a perfectly crisp, browned marshmallow is ready.

“Graham crackers, please,” Cas asks Cassie, and she reaches down and passes them over. Cas puts the twig between his teeth while he balances the crackers on one hand, then grabs the twig with the other. It doesn’t take much for Cas to ease the marshmallow onto the cracker, and then reaches down for the final piece. After applying a perfectly rich piece of chocolate, Cas pushes the two crackers together and hands them over to Dean, who is staring at him with pink in his cheeks.

“That uh...ah... ,” he babbles, hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. “I’ll take that,” he says in a truncated manner, and then grabs the s’more from Cas’s fingers. When he brings it up to his mouth and takes a bite, the noise that emits is enough to get even Cas flustered.

“Oh hot damn,” Dean mumbles as he takes another bite of s’more, marshmallow landing on the edge of his mouth. “Marry me, Cas. I want to eat this all the time.”

Cas freezes, because is it possible that Dean remembers their promise? For a second, Cas lets himself foolishly hope, but then Cassie is reaching over and brushing crumbs from Dean’s lips, and he leans forward to leave a kiss on hers.

 _He’s not yours_ , Cas reminds himself. _He’ll never be yours._

“I’m going to the tent,” Cas says when Dean and Cassie begin giggling at one another. “I’ll see you guys later.”

Dean looks up for a second and throws Cas a grin. “Night, Cas.”

Cas only nods before turning around and crawling into the lodging. He zips himself inside and curls up into the nearest sleeping bag, desperately trying to keep his mind off his dumb, idiotic crush that can only end badly. Instead, he tries to think of the galaxies he gazed at earlier, and dreams about blinking lights and green planets that look like Dean’s eyes.

 

**At Twenty One Years Old**

 

The third time Dean asks Cas to marry him, Dean is _drunk_.

It’s a little after midnight when he comes stumbling into their apartment, arm slung over Charlie’s shoulders for support. It’s clear that their weekly night out turned into a sloppy, drunken encounter by the way Dean’s grinning like an idiot and can’t walk straight. Plus, is he imagining it, or is that glitter on Dean’s clothes?

“Wild night at the club,” Charlie says through laughter when they step inside and attempt to close the door. They miss by a mile but don’t seem to notice, so Cas gets up and kicks it closed for them. That’s when he turns around and finds Dean right up in his personal space, reeking of sweat, alcohol, and sex.

“What did you guys do tonight?” Cas asks, scrunching up his brow in disgust.

Charlie giggles again and Dean does too, the pair falling away from one another as Charlie trips into the kitchen and Dean grabs his knees to keep from tipping over.

“Dean got trashed,” Charlie says with a smile on her face. Without asking, she rummages through their cabinets and pulls out a bag of Cheetos, then throws it at him. “Your precious princess will need food to sober up. He was begging for these on the way home.”

“Please tell me those are Cheetos,” Dean moans from next to him, and then grabs the bag from Cas’s hands. He doesn’t wait to shove his hand inside and pull out a few neon orange pieces, popping them in his mouth one by one. The way he leans his head back while he eats is very, very suggestive, and it takes a few gulps and a few steps back to stop himself from gaping at his best friend.

“Why did you guys go so hard?” Cas asks as he walks back over to the couch, taking a seat and curling his legs up beneath him. Charlie wanders over to him and readjusts her purse before looking on with a dejected expression.

“Aaron broke up with him earlier today,” she says quietly, and Cas feels his mouth fall open. They broke up? Aaron and Dean were practically inseparable. They’d been dating for almost a year, and a few days ago Dean was going on and on about how he could be “the one”. And even though it wrecked Cas to the core to hear Aaron’s name, even though he was probably falling hard and fast for his best friend, Dean’s happiness came first. Cas thought that Aaron made Dean happy. What happened?

“What?” he says after a few moments of quiet between them. He glances over and catches Dean completely oblivious to their talk, too focused on a Cheeto between his fingers to pay them any attention.

Charlie sighs and plops down on the couch. “He was offered a job in Washington,” she says with her palms up in the air. “Apparently he applied for an internship in D.C. awhile back and never told Dean about it. He got the call about the job when they were out today and Aaron suggesting they move to D.C. together didn’t go over so well,” she says. Charlie sighs and looks over at Dean quickly before turning back to Cas. “Dean told him to choose: D.C. or their relationship and, well, you know how Dean gets when he goes through a breakup.”

Cas sighs and puts his head in his hands, because of course he knows how Dean deals with breakups. It always involves booze, partying, and maybe a quickie in a bathroom stall if he can get it, followed by Cas picking up the pieces once he gets home. It breaks Cas every time he has to go through the routine, because he knows if he just told Dean how he really feels, if Cas admitted to the fact that he’s in love with him and probably has been since he was nine years old, maybe, just maybe, this could all be avoided. Maybe they’d end up together, and Cas would kiss Dean like his life depends on it. Maybe they’d never, ever have to go through the breakup routine again, and they’d follow through on their promises of marriage. Maybe they’d be incredibly, impossibly happy.

But Cas never does, because he’s a coward who is afraid of losing the best friend he’s ever had.

So instead, Cas gets up from the couch and walks over to Dean. He takes the Cheetos bag from his hand and guides him into the living room, waving away Charlie and telling her to go home and get some rest. And when she’s left the apartment and they're alone again, he brings Dean into the bathroom, strips him of his clothes and puts him in a pair of old sweatpants and his favorite t-shirt. He sits on the cold, tile floor as his friend drunkenly retches into the toilet, and rubs circles on his back while telling him that it’s going to all be fine.

After it’s over, Cas pulls Dean up from the floor and walks him to bed, pulling back the covers and helping him under them. Dean’s eyes are fluttering shut by the time Cas is done tucking him in, but a hand lands on his arm when he turns away.

“Stay,” Dean mumbles, fingers grasping Cas’s arm tighter. “Stay, Cas.”

He knows that it’s a terrible idea to stay like Dean wants. He knows that it’s best if he just turns away, leaves and lets his friend sleep it off. And yet, Cas feels butterflies in his gut when Dean’s fingertips graze over his bare arm and reach for his hand. He knows that in the morning he’ll kick himself for sleeping with Dean, because his bed will then forever feel empty and incomplete.

And yet, Cas can’t imagine passing this up.

Reluctantly, he walks over to the other side and climbs in. Dean turns over and grins at him immediately, and when Cas nuzzles into the covers, Dean drags him into an embrace and brings his arms around his belly.

“Are we really cuddling right now?” Cas asks, but Dean just waves him off.

“Aaron never let me do this,” he mumbles into Cas’s neck. “Feels good.”

He feels Dean’s fingers searching for his beneath the sheets, so Cas reaches forward and curls them together. He can feel Dean’s content sigh against his skin, and it takes everything in Cas to stop himself from blurting out ‘I love you.’ Instead, he grabs Dean’s hand as tight as he can, and lets his eyes close as Dean’s breaths begin to even out.

“Marry me,” Dean whispers like a sigh in his ear.

“I wish I could,” Cas mumbles back, but when he turns and glances at Dean, he’s already asleep.

 _Typical_ , he thinks to himself, and turns back towards the window. With the unsaid 'I love you' lingering on his lips, Cas closes his eyes and drifts off too, trying his best to fight back against the hope that is once again blooming within. 

 

**At Twenty Nine Years Old**

 

The fourth time Dean asks Cas to marry him, it is below the stars on a cool, fall night.

Earlier that day, Cas was picking up coffee for his office when he got a text from Dean. ' _Lawrence Community Park. Be there,’_ is all it said, and Cas just rolled his eyes. This wasn’t the first cryptic message he’d gotten over the past few weeks from Dean. The first was instructions to go to a garden in Kansas City, but halfway there Dean called and cancelled. A few days later, Cas got another text, this time telling him to pick up tickets to a Royals game, but Dean said that Sam was in town and he couldn’t make it a few days before. And Cas was just beyond confused, because what was Dean getting at?

 _‘You better come this time,’_ Cas texted back as he was waiting for the cashier to ring up his order and give him his credit card back. He pocketed the device and grabbed the card back from the barista before wandering over to the pickup area, then waited impatiently while a new hire fumbled behind the counter. When she dropped one of his coffee’s on the ground, he actually groaned out loud. Usually Cas would be patient with a new barista, but Michael and Luke were insufferable today, and if the new intern, aka Cas, wasn’t back with their coffee soon he was positive that he’d get wrung out for it.

“One Americano and three regular coffees for Cas...teel?” the barista got out once she poured a new coffee.

Cas grumbled at the mispronunciation and grabbed the drinks from her without preamble.

“Thanks,” he muttered back, and she told him to have a great day before he turned on his heel and went out the door.

When Cas was practically running back to the office he felt his phone vibrate against his leg. It took a whole lot of willpower to ignore it, because any text from Dean usually took precedence over anything else, which is beyond dumb and a little pathetic. He’s almost thirty and is still hopelessly in love with a man he can never be with. Why couldn’t he just let it go?

But it’s not like Cas hadn’t tried getting over Dean. He’s dated both women and men over the years, but they’ve all been able to tell that he’s already given himself to someone else. The closest he ever got to letting Dean go was with a girl named Meg, a feisty business lawyer from his firm who called him Clarence and kissed him like he was the air she needed to breathe, but even she could tell that he wasn’t fully devoted to her. They dated for five months before she ended it and told him to, quote, ‘grow a pair and tell Dean that you love him already, idiot.’

He was thinking about Meg’s earlier suggestion when he trudged through the office doors and booked it up the stairs. When he emerged from the staircase and into the office, he only got to take a few steps before he collided with Michael, coffee flying everywhere.

“Shit! I’m sorry!” Cas cried out as he walked forward to help, but Michael held up a hand and quieted him.

“Please go home, Castiel. You’ve been out of it all day long and I don’t need you ruining anything else.”

Cas nodded and gave Michael the rest of the coffee that wasn’t dropped. “Apologies, again,” he said, and then turned on his heel and went back to way he came.

Once he was outside in the cool air, Cas berated himself for being such an idiot. If a text can get him that flustered, then he’s in deeper than he ever imagined. _You know it’s time to end it_ , he told himself, and Cas knew that he’s right. He couldn’t continue like this, waiting for Dean to see him as something other than a friend. It’s too much, and now it was interfering with his work life. It was time to do what he’d never been able to do: he needed to tell Dean the truth. He needed to tell Dean that he’s in love with him and has been for years.

At least, that’s what he thought at the firm, but now that he’s walking up to the park he’s not so sure anymore. Telling Dean is a big deal, and he doesn’t want to spring it on him without preamble. What if he freaks Dean out and he runs? That’s a possibility, and it causes Cas to sweat through his nice suit that he’s wearing. Maybe he should just forget about it after all. Maybe he needs to-

He doesn’t get to consider it any further before the gazebo in the middle of the field explodes in light. Thousands of twinkle lights are decorating the wooden building, casting a heavenly glow around the area. They’re perfect, and go well with the starry night above his head. But the most amazing thing of it all is Dean. He’s in the center of the gazebo in a well pressed suit, something Cas has never seen him in before outside of friend’s weddings. There’s something in his right hand, but it’s curled up and Cas can only make out a slight glint when Dean turns.

“You came,” Dean says after a bit of quiet between them.

Cas walks forward into the gazebo and glances shyly up at his best friend, like he did when they were children and he offered to eat onions for Dean. “What’s going on?” Cas asks.

Dean rubs the back of his neck with his free hand and whistles under his breath. “Wow, okay, this is harder than I’d thought it’d be,” he babbles, rocking back on his feels. He turns his eyes to the ground and a blush rises to his cheeks. “Sam told me that this was the easiest thing he’s done and now I think he’s a damn liar.”

Cas squints and glances around the gazebo again. The lights, the atmosphere, it all screams cheesy rom-com at him, usually when a guy proposes-

 _No, don’t let yourself consider that_ , Cas tells himself, but it’s hard not to when Dean’s acting like a caged animal and they are in a very romantic setting, after all..

“Dean-”

“No, let me talk, Cas,” Dean interrupts with a flash of something Cas can’t place in his eyes. Nerves? Obviously, but there’s another emotion there too.

He doesn’t get to think about it before Dean throws his hands down and looks into Cas’s eyes. “Remember when we were twenty one and we cuddled after Aaron broke up with me?”

Cas feels his blood run cold, because he thinks he knows what Dean’s getting at and he’s completely, utterly not ready for it. “Of course,” he says. “You asked me to marry you, but I didn’t think you’d remember.”

Dean’s eyes turn to the ground and he toes the wood with his boot. “I could never forget that night, Cas. You picked me up from the ground and took care of me. Nobody ever has done that for me before. I was so overwhelmed I asked you to marry me, kinda joking, kinda not.”

“Dean-”

“And remember what you said, Cas?” Dean interjects, clearly needing to get this out. Cas closes his mouth and lets him, hands clenching at his sides while butterflies flutter in his gut. “Cas, you said that you wish you could. Did...did you...really mean that?” he asks with wide eyes, and Cas feels like the world is spinning a thousand miles per hour around him when Dean comes forward and lays a hand on his cheek. “Did you?” he repeats.

“Yes,” Cas says lowly. He flicks his gaze to the ground and tries not to cringe at the loss of touch when Dean walks away.

Dean whistles under his breath. “Well shit, Cas. Then what are we doin’? Why aren’t we together already if we both feel the same way?”

He freezes and closes his eyes. No, this can’t be real. Things like this, romance, requited love, they don’t happen to Cas, ever. And now Dean’s in front of him asking why they aren’t together? It’s everything Cas’s ever wanted, and he knows that when he opens his eyes Dean’ll be gone and it’ll all be a big dream and-

“Cas, open your eyes. Please,” Dean says, and his voice breaks on the last word.

Obeying, Cas takes a few steps back to steady himself and then opens them. What he finds almost knocks him off his feet. Dean is on one knee in front of him, a glittering, golden band and a single dandelion perched between his fingers.

“Cas,” he says quietly, lips pulled up into a wide grin, “I’ve loved you for a long time now. I didn’t know it was love, not at first, but I think I’ve kinda been fallin’ for you ever since we were nine. I just wish I realized it earlier, and I wish it didn’t take Charlie telling me that I’m an idiot to get me to admit it to myself, you know? But if I’m not completely off track and you feel the same way, will you marry me? For real?”

Cas feels a thousand things run through him. Excitement, confusion, fear, lightness, but most of all, Cas feels love. All the love that he’s felt for Dean over the years comes to the surface, and with a grin as wide as the galaxies above their heads, Cas says the word that’s always been on the fringes of his lips.

“Yes.”


End file.
